Beautiful, fall-like morning today, with temperatures in the high 50s and low humidity. I skipped my morning run yesterday in favor of paddling, and won’t have another opportunity until Monday at the earliest, so I headed out this morning in lieu of my usual Friday climbing. Not only was the weather nice, but Howard County schools were out as well, so things were quieter than usual in the neighborhood. I went 10.16 miles, besting my personal best distance by about a tenth of a mile. It was only my 4th run over 10 miles, and it was my fastest, at 10:53/mile, which is almost 30 seconds faster per mile than my second fastest of 11:22. It’s kind of ironic that most of my speed PRs, today included, came when I was not consciously trying to go fast. I was just trying to maintain a comfortable pace with a high cadence, and it worked out great, with a definite assist from the weather. If I do try to go fast, it seems like I start out going too fast and then poop out early, ending up with a slower average pace overall. The run was pretty good comfort-wise, with just some fatigue in my feet towards the end. I suspect that will abate somewhat as I my feet get more acclimated to running these distances.